How to Make a Caricature of Yourself

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A caricature of yourself is certainly something to keep forever and something to make you smile at any point in your life. Of course, drawing a caricature is not an easy task, but it is something that can be learned, given time and practice.

When you decide you want to draw your own caricature, you need to first how to make a caricature of yourself. If you’ve never done this before, it is certainly not something you can just throw yourself into an expect to get it right the first time. You need to practice! Head online to find visual tools to help you out, with Learn to Draw a fantastic way to give you confidence and learn the tricks of the trade.

Our Top Pick For Caricature Drawing

By seeing the whole thing in front of you, and learning from scratch you can understand the differences between portrait drawing and caricature drawing. For starters, a caricature is not as detailed as a portrait; you won’t draw every strand of hair, as you would do if you were doing a portrait. Instead, you would draw the outline and add a tiny bit of detail, to give the impression of long hair or curly hair, for example. What you are trying to do with a caricature is to exaggerate the main features, and to make them stand out in a humorous way.

Now, when you are learning to draw caricatures, you may a little worried to draw your friends and family, because you might feel that you are insulting them. Of course, you’re not really, but pointing out that someone has a big mouth, or a big nose is not something you want to be doing!

How to Make a Caricature of Yourself

When you’re learning, it’s easy to make these mistakes, and you’re not exaggerating a feature that you want to hide, you’re exaggerating a feature that really hints at a personality trait. If you were drawing a big diva singer, you could draw them singing with their mouth so wide open you can see their tonsils – you are hinting at their job, what they do, their personality, but in a humorous way.

So, how do make a caricature of yourself? Well, you obviously know what you look like, but do you really know what your main features are? The whole point of caricature drawing is that you are exaggerating, so you need to know what to point out. Perhaps have a chat with a friend and ask them what they think your features are, or simply gaze in the mirror and look. Do you have a lot of opinions?

If so, perhaps draw a big mouth talking loudly. If you have big lips, make them bigger. If you wear a lot of earrings, draw yourself with massive earrings and even more than normal. This is pointing out your features and your funny quirks.

Once you know what your features are, the things you want to expand on, you need to capture it in a photograph, so you can have something in front of you when you’re drawing. Find a photo that shows off the features you’re identified as something you want to exaggerate on. Place that photograph in front of you, on your workstation, and get comfortable. Now it’s time to get drawing!

Make your lines confident, bold, and thick. There is no room for shyness when drawing a caricature of any type! Start with your eyes first, and place them just above the center of the page. This is so that you are not going to run out of room on the page. Once you have the eyes, you can work around it, perhaps going to the hair, or the nose next. Work outwards, and then move to the feature you’re going to expand on the most.

Whilst we’re talking about thick, bold lines, there is also room for shading in caricature drawing. The lines need to have something behind them, something slightly shaded, to give a sense of realness. You are trying to create a real likeness of yourself, and you want it to be realistic, yet cartoon-like at the same time. This is not about smudging lines because that is not the real emphasis when doing caricatures. Instead, you want to shade, and the best way to do that is to purchase a shading tool.

Once you have this, and they are easily available, you need to prepare it, by messing it up a little. Scribble on a sheet of paper and then rub the shading tool throughout it, so you’re loading it up with lead. When it’s covered enough, it will draw a line on its own. Then, you can shade lightly below the thick lines that you’re drawing, to give depth and realness to your picture.

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